Hi, I'm Becky Quick, co-host of Squawk Box, and this is five things you need to know before today's opening bell.

First up, IBM is in talks to acquire data infrastructure company confluent for $11 billion.

That's according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Some changes to the S&P 500, CRH, Carvana and Comfort Systems USA, are going to be

joining the index before the open of trading on December 22nd. LKQ, Solstice Advanced Materials,

and Mohawk Industries are being removed from the index. And we will watch to see what happens

with this. but as you might

expect those that are being added are up this morning the biggest gainer is carvana which is up by

nine percent the trump administration saying that it will forgive the remaining 11 million dollars

of a civil fine against southwest airlines stemming from its 2022 holiday meltdown nearly

17 000 flights were canceled during that

disruption. And the Trump administration planning to unveil a long-awaited aid package for farmers,

including $12 billion in assistance. That's according to a Bloomberg report. Also, horror sequel,

Five Nights at Freddy's Two, surpassing expectations and winning

the domestic weekend box office with $63 million in ticket sales. That movie had the biggest

opening ever for the weekend after Thanksgiving. We'll be back later today with Squawk Pod,

our daily podcast featuring the best of Squackbox.

Stay tuned to your feed, wherever you get your podcasts, and listen anytime.